Friday, July 31, 2009

So Long and Thanks...


This blog has served me well. I've met so many interesting people, and through sharing their stories I have had a glimpse into our collective human consciousness.

By observing the interaction and reactions of myself and others, it has become apparent to me how driven by ego we all are. It is my sincere belief that by living unconsciously we are feeding the ego; the sense of separation.
This is the root cause of our suffering. The Ego is the final Beast to starve.

What follows for me is a journey to the inside, and isn't something I can effectively share on a blog. There are others out there speaking the Truth more gracefully than I.

Eckhardt Tolle's book "A New Earth" is a good place to start if you feel interested in learning more about this final Beast.
We have met the enemy, and he is us.

For just as the Green Valley exists inside each of us, so too does the Beast.

The final showdown approaches, my friends. I'm as ready as I'll ever get.

Follow your heart.
Listen to your soul.
Be kind to each other, for we are all mirrors.

We must face the darkness before we may see the dawn.

Blessings to all,
may Love and Light surround you.


"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I Am the Highway

I AM NOT YOUR ROLLING WHEELS,
I AM THE HIGHWAY


This is how I feel right now.
Sorry about the lame bubble inserts; please ignore. This was the best version of the song I found...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Get up, Stand up!

You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
\
Don't give up the fight.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

On the Turning Away

This is a beautiful song, and beautiful thoughts.
We can all use a reality check like this one sometimes.

From Pink Floyd's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason"
The youtube comments are good too.
This is posted partly in response to a rant I was having over at Dakin's blog, http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

7 habits of the highly infected kind...



I saw Dragon's post of Type O Negative's "Profits of Doom" and started thinking about the Clutch song of the same title. This is a cooler video than Clutch - Profits of Doom though.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Garden Pictures

As requested, some pictures of the garden...
Peas climbing the fence

Beans and turnips

The raspberry patch

The blueberry patch

Bee hives in the orchard, looking up toward the house

Mom and Aunt by a corn bed

A garden cat

The squash bed

The parsnip that ate Chicago

View over corn beds to broccoli

Beets, carrots and cucumbers growing beneath the corn

Broccoli!

By the way, this place is for sale. 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, daylight basement with garage and lots of storage, about 2000 square feet. Set up for passive solar heating, wood stove, on about 2 acres with year round pond.
A bedroom community of Seattle, good schools, still lots of Tech industry jobs....
List price is $450K, negotiable.
Feel free to e-mail or leave a comment if interested....

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Garden Notes

The Garden is a constant source of joy (and food).
Beans are starting to flower, beets are getting fat, broccoli has golf ball sized heads, and zucchinni and winter squash have baby squashes.

Harvesting peas, pac choy, swiss chard, garlic, raspberries and cherries. Blueberries will be ripening soon. Corn is almost waist high. It's time for a second thinning of the carrots; the thinned are big enough to be edible.

One of the bee hives swarmed today, and there is a football sized clump of bees hanging out in one of the apple trees.

The Parsnip That Ate Chicago (it's about 2 feet taller than me) is getting fat seeds that should be dry and ready to save in a month or so. Select spinach and lettuce plants are also being allowed to seed.

Watching and waiting.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Finding the Green Valley



The rest of my trip was very enjoyable. I visited several friends, had bonfires on the beach, and many fabulous conversations about our disconnected society and looking for ways to heal it.

My last stop was a rest area just south of the Oregon/California border. I had intended to make more miles, but the rest area was well off the highway, with soft green grass and a beautiful sparkly river.

It was just so damn pleasant I had to stop for the night, even though it was early in the afternoon.

Redwing blackbirds chuckled in the willows and cattails, and every so often I would catch a whiff of sea air, blowing up the river from the Pacific.

I laid on the grass near the river, and thought about my journey. It was amazing how the timing had worked out. Any time I was delayed, it worked to my advantage. I invariably arrived at friends places at the beginning of their weekends. Once I just decided to flow with it and "let it roll" everything fell into place.
I thought about how thankful I was for this opportunity to see our big, beautiful country, and follow spring across it.
I gave thanks for good friends, and for simply being alive and able to appreciate all the wonderful possibilities life has to offer.

Slowly I drifted into a state of bliss I can only describe as the "God experience". When one is truly, deeply grateful for one's existence, and hyper aware of the realities that surround you, you can get to a place where you feel the earth breathing, and feel that you are a part of All That Is.

It is a place so whole and loving and happy it never fails to move me to tears, though they are tears of joy.

It occurred to me that wherever my friends were on this journey, there was a green valley.


Near Santa Cruz, CA

Near Tucson, AZ

There was a Green Valley park near my brother, and a Green Valley town near my mom.

The Green Valley isn't necessarily a physical place, it is inside me. It's where my community lives.
That Green Valley is inside all of us. Where do you think the Eden story comes from?
The Green Valley is an archetype as old as mankind.

This blog has been slipping for a while. I'm simply too busy to spend much time time on the computer. I think it's time to wrap things up.
I'll still check in from time to time, and maybe be lurking in the blogosphere, but this is probably my last post.
I am a different person now. This blog no longer reflects me as I currently exist.
If I start a new blog I will post a link here.

A few days ago, I visited a place that comes as close to the physical reality of my Green Valley as I could ever hope for.

About 1 1/2 hours drive from the nearest city, up winding country roads, across an old wooden bridge, lies a valley surrounded by wooded foothills.
I worked alongside fellow gardeners and volunteers in the acre of organic vegetable gardens.

I wandered through the fields, skimming my hands across wildflowers and grasses, and felt like I could fly.

I swam in the beautiful rocky trout stream beneath the wooden bridge, and saw more food swimming around in the water than I had seen since the reef in Key West.

I hiked up to a patch of old growth trees, put my hands to them and gave thanks that they still existed, while praying for their continued existence.


I followed nicely built hippies through the shoulder high grass next to the stream.

I felt this land welcoming me home, holding me gently in its embrace like a lover.



We are each responsible for creating our reality. With every thought and word and deed we shape what we experience.
I want a reality filled with love and peace and light, and I will work tirelessly toward that end.

Each of us is a creature of God, a part of the universe, and like it or not we hold the power to manifest our reality. Negative energy begets negative reality, and positive energy begets positive reality.

You can't fight the waves, but you can learn to surf.
I just caught a monster wave, and I'm gonna hang on and ride it all the way in to the land of milk and honey.
From here on out, I surf.